SAN JOSE — Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said he and Edmonton Oilers coach Todd McLellan, who coached the Sharks from 2008-2015, have maintained a friendly relationship since they were both on Team Canada’s coaching staff at the 2015 IIHF World Championships.

McLellan was the head coach and DeBoer was an assistant for the Canadian team, which included Brent Burns, that won the gold medal. McLellan had parted ways with the Sharks after they missed the 2015 NHL playoffs — just prior to the start of the World Championships — and DeBoer had been fired by the New Jersey Devils the day after Christmas in 2014.

“I would say we’re friends,” DeBoer said. “We don’t speak regularly. I don’t speak regularly to my own family during the regular season just with travel and everything else going on. But we’re friendly and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and that staff.”

DeBoer said the two got a chance to catch up with each other in San Jose right around the Stanley Cup Final

“In this business, you have to move on,” DeBoer said. “It’s a little easier moving on when part of it is your choice. It wasn’t a situation where I got fired in New Jersey where you don’t have a choice. It was a mutual parting (for McLellan with the Sharks) from what I understand, and when you have situations like that, you throw yourself into the next job and there’s no hard feelings.”

• The Sharks’ game Friday against the Oilers figures to feature the two busiest goalies in the NHL so far this season. Entering Wednesday, Edmonton’s Cam Talbot led the league with 30 games played and Martin Jones was No. 2 with 29 games.

The workload hasn’t seemed to be a big issue for either goalie so far. In December, Jones is 5-3 and Talbot was 5-1-2 entering Wednesday. Both had a respectable .917 save percentage.

Jones has made 11 of the past 12 starts for the Sharks. He played in 65 games last season, but is on pace for a few more than that this season. Backup goalie Aaron Dell has made just four starts.

“I don’t feel like we’ve overplayed him,” DeBoer said. “Whether the way the schedule’s laid out or the games that (Dell) has played have come at the right time where (Jones) has got a few days here and there. It doesn’t feel over taxing to me right now.”

Dell figures to see more action after the Christmas break, as the Sharks play on back-to-back night four times between then and the end of January. The first comes Dec. 30 and 31, when the Sharks host Philadelphia followed by a game in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.

Still, though, Jones figures to be a workhorse for the final three-plus months of the regular season.

“(Jones) isn’t the first or the last goalie that could play 70 or 72 games,” DeBoer said.

Curtis Pashelka is the San Jose Sharks reporter for the Bay Area News Group. Prior to covering the Sharks, Curtis served as the high school sports editor for the East Bay. He also worked as a general assignment reporter covering motorsports, golf and college basketball, and as a backup writer on the A's, Giants and Warriors. He started at the organization in 2000 and spent close to eight years covering high school sports.